The American Pecan Council voted to implement multiple research projects for American pecan growers that will benefit the industry and one of the projects growers agreed to fund is the orchard mapping project. 

 

This project will allow the APC staff to identify all pecan orchards in the US and compare those acreage numbers to USDA data to get a more accurate representation of pecan production in each area of the country.

 

Land IQ is the name of the firm conducting the mapping project, the firm has been hired to use satellite imaging among other sophisticated software tools to identify all pecan orchards in the US. What’s even more interesting is that Land IQ is hoping to identify orchards that are being actively managed and those that have been abandoned. 

 

The project began in 2018 and had already mapped around half of the pecan producing states in the US. The first round of mapping included the major pecan producing states, and the second round will finish with the remaining unmapped states. 

 

The project also plans to map Georgia twice. Since mapping had already taken place prior to Hurricane Michael the council decided to re-map Georgia to learn the extent of the damage caused by the category 5 hurricane that ripped through northern Florida, Georgia and finally existed land through the Carolinas just before harvest season last year in mid October. 

 

The APC has already sent out several updates on the project via their newsletters and will keep industry updated on findings.